Testing Causal Inference Between Social Media News Reliance and (Dis)trust of EU Institutions with an Instrumental Variable Approach: Lessons From a Null-Hypothesis Case
| Published date | 01 May 2024 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/14789299231183574 |
| Author | Martin Moland,Asimina Michailidou |
| Date | 01 May 2024 |
https://doi.org/10.1177/14789299231183574
Political Studies Review
2024, Vol. 22(2) 412 –426
© The Author(s) 2023
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DOI: 10.1177/14789299231183574
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Testing Causal Inference
Between Social Media
News Reliance and
(Dis)trust of EU Institutions
with an Instrumental Variable
Approach: Lessons From
a Null-Hypothesis Case
Martin Moland
and Asimina Michailidou
Abstract
Given the well-documented negativity bias and attitudinal entrenchment associated with sharing
and debating news in social media, a reasonable and already substantially investigated assumption
is that those getting news about the European Union (EU) mostly from social media would be
more sceptical of its institutions than others. Empirical research on this topic has thus far largely
deployed experimental and observational methods to investigate this assumption. We contribute
to the existing literature with an instrumental variable approach well-suited to establishing causal
relationships in non-experimental data. However, we find no blanket causal relationship between
relying on social media for news about the EU polity and becoming less trustful of its institutions.
EU policies aiming to tackle negative effects of social media news consumption, therefore, need to
be tailored to different demographic groups.
Keywords
social media, public opinion, trust, European Union, media effects, instrumental variable
approach
Accepted: 6 June 2023
ARENA Centre for European Studies, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
Corresponding author:
Martin Moland, ARENA Centre for European Studies, University of Oslo, Oslo, 0373, Norway.
Email: martin.moland@arena.uio.no
1183574PSW0010.1177/14789299231183574Political Studies ReviewMoland and Michailidou
research-article2023
The Null Hypothesis
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